Britain Needs to Rethink Its Huawei Decision after China's Conduct over Coronavirus

"China is trying to turn its health crisis into a geopolitical opportunity. It is launching a soft power campaign aimed at filling the vacuum left by the United States." — Yu Jie, a senior research fellow at London's Chatham House

China's cynical attempts to use the coronavirus pandemic to its own advantage are not just deeply unethical: they should be taken as a warning that Beijing is not to be trusted, a lesson the West should take on board as it contemplates its future relationship with the Chinese, on trade and other issues such a 5G.

In Britain, for example, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision earlier this year to allow Huawei access to the country's new 5G network was taken despite the fact that the country's security services have long-regarded Huawei as a "high-risk vendor".

Mr Johnson's decision in favour of Huawei continuing its involvement in constructing the 5G network is said to have been influenced by threats from Beijing that Britain's vital trading relationship with China would be adversely affected if Huawei was excluded.

China's cynical attempts to use the coronavirus pandemic to its own advantage should be taken as a warning that Beijing is not to be trusted, a lesson the West should take on board as it contemplates its future relationship with the Chinese, on trade and other issues such a 5G. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

China's shameful attempt to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to further its own global ambitions should be seen as yet further evidence of the mounting threat Beijing poses to the West.

The blatant hypocrisy of China's attempts to use the pandemic for its own ends should persuade countries such as Britain to undertake a fundamental reappraisal of their relationship with Beijing, especially when it comes to sensitive technological issues, such as allowing the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei access to the 5G network.

Far from being embarrassed that the rank incompetence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in dealing with the initial outbreak has resulted in the world suffering its worst public health crisis in a century, Beijing has instead embarked on a charm offensive aimed at providing support for affected countries.

A good example of how China is seeking to reposition itself as the world's "Coronavirus Saviour", as opposed to being the instigator of a pandemic that has so far claimed around 20,000 lives, can be seen in the response of the Balkan state of Serbia to the generous medical support it has received from Beijing.

Serbia, in common with many European countries, was caught off-guard by the rapid spread of the virus, and soon found that it was suffering severe shortages of vital medical supplies.

This led the country's president, Alexander Vucic, to make a personal appeal to Chinese President Xi Jinping for help. Referring to Mr Xi as my "brother and friend", Mr Vucic publicly thanked the Chinese leader after Beijing sent a team of doctors to Belgrade, together with face masks, ventilators and other vital equipment.

"I believe in my brother and friend Xi Jinping and I believe in China's help," said Mr Vucic, before ending his statement with a swipe at the European Union, which had failed to respond to Serbia's request for assistance. "European solidarity," he said, was just a fairy tale.

The gratitude expressed by countries such as Serbia for the assistance provided by China will be music to Beijing's ears as it seeks to distance itself from its culpability in causing the pandemic in the first place. As Yu Jie, a senior research fellow at London's prestigious Chatham House think tank, commented earlier this week, "China is trying to turn its health crisis into a geopolitical opportunity. It is launching a soft power campaign aimed at filling the vacuum left by the United States."

China's cynical attempts to use the coronavirus pandemic to its own advantage are not just deeply unethical: they should be taken as a warning that Beijing is not to be trusted, a lesson the West should take on board as it contemplates its future relationship with the Chinese, on trade and other issues such a 5G.

In Britain, for example, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision earlier this year to allow Huawei access to the country's new 5G network was taken despite the fact that the country's security services have long-regarded Huawei as a "high-risk vendor".

Mr Johnson's decision in favour of Huawei continuing its involvement in constructing the 5G network is said to have been influenced by threats from Beijing that Britain's vital trading relationship with China would be adversely affected if Huawei was excluded.

Mr Johnson's decision provoked outrage in Washington, prompting a cross-party group of 20 US senators to travel to London and call on the UK to reverse its decision, highlighting the "significant security, privacy, and economic threats" of the plan.

Apart from jeopardising Britain's future membership of the elite "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing arrangement with the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Washington believes the British government is being naive if it believes it can allow Beijing access to its 5G network without compromising its own national security, as well as other members of the Five Eyes alliance.

Mr Johnson certainly has a good excuse for reversing the Huawei decision now that Beijing has shown its true colours through its all-too-revealing exploitation of the coronavirus pandemic.

Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

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19 Reader Comments

David Weum • May 5, 2020 at 19:28

I have 3 reasons to believe the clever Brits will make the correct decision on Huawei:1. Brexit2. Consevative Majority3. Dessimation of the Labour Party.Sincerely,DavidCanada

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Reginald Rawlinson • Apr 16, 2020 at 06:31

After reading and listening to a lot of comment about this so-called virus that has apparently arrived from China, who do we believe??It would appear to be a circulating bug created by China to frighten the world that they are here and are taking control whether you like it or not.Mr Boris Johnson has made a grave mistake by buying from Huawei. He now has the tremendous task of getting out of it. Time will tell surely.

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Ruben Valdez • Mar 27, 2020 at 01:55

The Chinese Communist Party is a sinister and evil organization. The whole world needs to oppose them and get out of China have nothing to do with them. Set up supply chains with all other countries except China. U.S. relocate all factories out of China to other countries. A S A P otherwise there will be more nightmares to follow. When is the world going to learn its lesson? Now is the time in view of what China has done unleashing this virus hell on the world.

No more sharing of technical information or anything else with China. China is a Pandora's box, very bad business. Corporate globalists need to be held to account for this big mess. Does anyone think that these things will be done? Probably not, why because in all reality the whole world is one big wimpy wimpy afraid and scared to death of China, the enemy!

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Isabel Clark Ruben Valdez • Apr 2, 2020 at 04:43

Agree absolutely and I am furious that our PM has said OK to these nasty people.

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Hamish MacDonald • Mar 26, 2020 at 18:54

The G20 should all wake up to bully boy tactics by China. The future of the world is in their hands in the wake of the Coronavirus. They are spending big money, Trillions of dollars.They should be made aware of the dangers, and watch for trickery.

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Cecelia Gomes • Mar 26, 2020 at 18:39

Has the visit mentioned in this article by the 20 US senators had a positive impact? How can major global players remain naïve in the wake of this covid-19 debacle? China's President Xi Jinping must be laughing out loud at his rivals in his private palace, safely insulated from the virus crafted in Wuhan's deadly lab. The world will certainly survive but many lives will not and others forever changed.

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john braeman • Mar 26, 2020 at 18:32

Johnson should be warned -- privately to save his face, but bluntly -- that unless he excludes the Chinese from a share in Britain's wireless system the U.S. will end any future relationship (trade, defense, intelligence, etc.) withBritain.

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Old School • Mar 26, 2020 at 17:33

The decent nations of the earth should join in a class action suit against the People's Republic of China and put the bastards out of business forever. We should strip them of diplomatic recognition and board up their embassies world-wide. No nation on earth has escaped the fallout from the malicious mischief of Red China. They are an enemy to all decent nations. They are not even a friend to the indecent ones like Iran. This caper ought to finish them as a nation on the world stage. Anyone who even trades with them deserves what they get. Now we know what they are and what they are capable of.

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Hatman1793 • Mar 26, 2020 at 16:05

The Chi-coms & the Saudis are not our friends. Both totalitarian regimes that purchased or stole western technology, both repressive regimes that use every angle to compromise the west. Both cannot be trusted.Turf the Chi-coms from the WTO & revoke their MFN status. Embargo worldwide Saudi conflict oil sales.

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DishTRish • Mar 26, 2020 at 13:11

Italy's New Silk road turned out SO well! Don't do it - look at Italy and how China ate the garment industry up. Find new trading partners. We will in the USA. China steals intellectual property, has flooded our universities, and hoard up as much American real estate as possible.

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Bisley • Mar 26, 2020 at 11:20

Huawei (and every other business in China) is the agent of the government and the CCP -- they wouldn't be allowed to exist otherwise. Regardless of China's actions connected to the Wuhan virus, it's stupid and dangerous to give control of your communications system to a hostile power, known for spying, intellectual property theft, and cyber-crime of every sort.

It will destroy cooperation with the US on intelligence, military and foreign policy, or anything technical. The US won't share any sensitive information with the UK while having to assume that China has access to all British communications. A PM who would let a potential enemy build his country's communications system is a traitor, or an idiot. Nothing the Chinese could do could compensate for the damage to US/UK relations, nor anything they threaten approach such a level of damage.

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Peter Rotberg • Mar 26, 2020 at 09:16

On double ethics.You cannot deny the fact that China is fighting its inner Corona war with utter efficiency and accuracy considering its territory, population density and census. Neither can you expect from a totalitarian regime to play by gentlemen rules and ethics towards the West. China isn't a fiend but a tough competitor (sometimes unfair) and rival.Peter RotbergThe Realist.

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Isabel Clark Peter Rotberg • Apr 2, 2020 at 06:44

How do any of us know how efficient they have been. They did not bother to let us know about Covid-19 before it was impossible for them to deny it. These untrustworthy people should NEVER be allowed into our IT networks or anything else like HS2 etc. They have not even apologised for the fact that their peoples' cruel treatment of animals is probably what caused this worldwide chaos. But then, perhaps that was their plan. They started the pandemic and now WE have to pay them for respirators. Sickening!!!

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David Ashton • Mar 26, 2020 at 07:48

We should certainly not permit China to enter our cyber network, nuclear industry or railways. If China wishes to donate anti-coronavirus equipment we should not turn it down however. They have a responsibility to compensate for their filthy animal markets.

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Christopher Shearwood • Mar 26, 2020 at 07:37

Britain now needs to consider a whole plethora of things about its dealings and business with China.

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cammo99 • Mar 26, 2020 at 06:50

In the USA the Soros group, Clinton and Pelosi and other democrats and their clones seem to be acting in accord and complicit with the socialists even doing the dirty work of covering up Chinese communist culpability in the spread of a disease they should have shared important need to know medical alerts. Globalist slash socialists do not want to be part of the world, they want to control the world. Here is the proof if anything good is to come out of our being hostages of the left's corruption under house arrest of socialist largesse, from Obama's failure to restock emergency materials after the swine flu to the snarl of paperwork and government piggy-bank putting union morale and paperwork first, the AHCA is nothing more than false promises and lies just a means to further diminish individual rights.That Clinton Pelosi Soros would hold hostage the health wand welfare of American citizens to promote sanctuary cities and states that are the ground zeroes of this tragedy is despicable. I have never witnessed such a lack of human conscience in political leadership but then these are people who admire the Ayatollah, who has ordered the deaths of more Iranians than the flu, the Taliban, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood more than America.

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Gabor Ujvari • Mar 26, 2020 at 06:40

Subcontracting the British telecommunication system to Huawei is just as ridiculous as it would be subcontract it during WWII to the Wehrmacht.

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Theo • Mar 26, 2020 at 06:36

It's a shame! China is going to take all advantages to "clean the crime scene". They will be praised because they will help the world. I pray that Israel, USA, Brazil and other conservative countries find the cure and help the world without dirty intentions.

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Hamish MacDonald • Mar 26, 2020 at 05:27

Yes. indeed.
Chinas businessmen are regarded as tough customers, equal at least to the Dutch businessmen.

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